


Ain't No Sunshine

by wheel_pen



Series: Daisy [35]
Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Naughtiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-12
Updated: 2013-05-12
Packaged: 2017-12-11 15:45:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/800408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daisy has gone out of town on a trip, and Damon is pining for her. Everyone else suffers. “There is something seriously wrong with your brother. Beyond all the obvious psychological defects and personality flaws, that is.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ain't No Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Daisy, my original character, moved to Mystic Falls about a year ago. There is something special about her.
> 
> 2\. This series begins with the first season of the TV show and completely diverges about halfway through the first season. Facts revealed later on the show might not make it into this series.
> 
> 3\. Underage warning: This series may contain human or human-like teenagers, in high school, in sexual situations.
> 
> 4\. The bad words are censored. That’s just how I do things.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this AU. I own nothing and appreciate being able to play in this universe.

_Thursday_

Elena thumped down the stairs on her way to the kitchen to grab some breakfast while Stefan showered. The sound of the TV murmuring in the living room caught her attention, however, and she detoured to investigate. A cheery morning talk show filled the screen, which was then was changed to CNN, then to some cartoons, which lingered.

“Damon?” she asked in some confusion, walking around the end of the couch. He was stretched out on it, staring dully at the TV, in the same position and clothes he’d been in when she’d seen him last night. The only difference was a larger number of beer bottles littering the carpet. “Damon? Have you been here all night?” she asked, concern mingling with caution. She had learned to be wary of moody vampires.

“Yes,” he answered. “Have you?” His eyes flickered to her briefly, then went back to the screen.

She wasn’t sure if he was making a crack about her spending the night with Stefan or not. “Why didn’t you sleep in your room?” she ventured.

“I wanted to watch TV.”

“All night?”

Her persistence finally drew his attention, and suddenly she wasn’t sure that was a good thing. He studied her for a long moment, his eyes dispassionate, and her skin began to crawl as she imagined his thoughts. Then he took a swig of beer and turned back to the television. Elena almost sagged with relief. “You’re gonna be late for school, little human,” he dismissed, changing the channel again. Elena wasted no time getting to the doorway of the living room.

But once there, something made her turn back. “Daisy won’t be gone forever,” she reminded him. “She’s only gone to Savannah.”

“I. Know. Where. She. Went.” The voice that rose from the couch was hard and sharp and achingly cold; Elena felt like she’d just been cursed. She fled for the warmth of the kitchen.

 

When Stefan got home from school that day Damon was still on the couch, although he was at least sitting up now, his chin propped on a pillow crushed in his arms. The empty beer bottle collection at his feet had multiplied.

Stefan sat down on the couch beside him, knocking over a few bottles despite his attempt to be careful. He watched the TV for a few minutes before remarking, “ _Golden Girls_ , huh?”

“I love this show,” Damon avowed passionately. “I love Sophia. And I love Dorothy. And Blanche. And Rose.”

“That’s all of them, isn’t it?” Stefan remembered.

“Yes. I love them all.”

Stefan waited a few more minutes. “So… when’s the last time you had something to eat?”

Damon shrugged, his eyes never leaving the TV. “I’m not hungry.”

“You have to eat,” Stefan told him sensibly.

“There’s a nursing home in town, right?” Damon remarked casually, and Stefan froze, not wanting to give him any encouragement in this direction. “Maybe someone there would be like Sophia. I would be very gentle with her.”

Stefan struggled mightily to overcome the ‘creep’ sensation that had just engulfed him. “Um, so… did you go out today?” he asked hopefully.

“Yes,” Damon answered, to Stefan’s surprise.

Stefan faced his brother to inquire further and got a better look at the object he clutched. “Is that Daisy’s pillow?” he guessed with a sinking heart.

“Yes.”

“Are you chewing on it?”

“No,” Damon assured him, taking his mouth off it.

“Did you break into her house to get it?” Stefan worried.

“I have a key,” Damon replied, as though this were somehow blindingly obvious. “I had to water the ferns,” he went on, eyes boring a hole through the TV. “They’re the souls of her ex-boyfriends.”

For a second Stefan was truly frightened for his brother’s sanity. Then he saw a slight smile on Damon’s lips—it was distant, not like his usual smirk, but Stefan relaxed. Maybe the fern thing was supposed to be a joke. He nudged Damon’s leg in a playful way. “Let’s go out and grab something to eat, what do you say?” he offered chummily. “Come on, you know your skin gets all leathery when you don’t eat.”

“Well, you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” Damon responded mildly, and it took Stefan a moment to realize what he meant.

He didn’t need Damon to forgive him for locking him in the cellar and trying to starve him. Stefan had had good reason for doing it. But he shouldn’t have expected Damon to forget about it, either. Well, if he still had energy to insult people, he wasn’t in danger of desiccating anytime soon. Stefan stood stiffly and left his brother alone with the TV, which was clearly what he wanted.

 

_Friday_

Stefan sat at the kitchen table finishing some homework while Elena ate breakfast. Sensing her watching him he glanced up and they both smiled suddenly, Elena giggling a little. Stefan forced himself to go back to his homework, still grinning as he remembered why it hadn’t gotten done the night before.

His sensitive hearing picked up footsteps on the stairs and he tried not to spoil the pleasant mood by tensing up. It was hard not to be tense with Damon around, however, especially lately.

His brother shuffled into the kitchen, hair askew, jeans crookedly clinging to his hips, eyes dull and tired. He flopped down in a chair at the kitchen table and immediately threw his head and arms down on it. Only Stefan’s quick reflexes saved Elena’s cereal from being splashed all over her by the force.

“Are you feeling okay?” Stefan couldn’t help asking, though the answer was fairly obvious.

“I had a dream about you last night,” Damon said instead, looking across the table at Elena. Both she and Stefan tried to prepare themselves for—well, anything, but definitely something inappropriate. “You came into my bedroom, and you were wearing a little red teddy, and you offered to let me bite you so I would feel better.”

Well, that wasn’t so bad, really. “And did you?” Elena was not too offended to ask.

“Bite you? Yes,” Damon answered.

“And did you feel better?”

He lifted his head to look at her coldly. “No, moron, it was a dream,” he said with casual nastiness. Elena huffed in exasperation and stood abruptly, taking her bowl to the sink, while Stefan gave Damon a warning kick under the table.

The warning was ignored as Damon put his head back down and continued, “And then Daisy appeared, and she was dressed like Dora the Explorer, and we had sex in a big tree covered in Spanish moss. And she called me her little monkey.” He sounded positively wretched.

There was a long pause. “Why don’t you wait in the car?” Stefan suggested to Elena.

“Yeah,” she agreed, before he’d even finished. She left quickly.

Stefan scooted down a chair to be closer to Damon. “Hey. Hey,” he said, putting a hand on his brother’s arm. He started in surprise when he felt his skin. “You’re ice-cold. Let me get you some coffee—“ Damon muttered something negative but turned his head so they were at least making eye contact. “You need to eat something,” Stefan pressed, more earnestly this time. “I know you miss Daisy, but—“ Damon growled at the sound of her name. Stefan was not impressed. “You’re being stupid,” he said bluntly.

Damon opened his mouth to retort, then apparently either forgot what he wanted to say or decided he agreed. Both were equally frightening possibilities. “Go away, go to school,” he mumbled instead, burying his face in his arms again. “And be quiet, Daddy has a hangover.”

Stefan rolled his eyes and shook Damon’s shoulder again until he looked back up. “Hey. Promise me you’ll at least get out of the house today. Okay?”

Damon snorted in derision. “Fine, nannygoat. I’ll go outside.”

“Good,” Stefan agreed, gathering up his books. “Tonight we’ll go out and get something to eat, okay?”

“Ooh, chipmunks,” Damon replied sarcastically, but at least it sounded slightly more like him.

“And take a shower,” Stefan added as he headed out the door. Damon sniffed himself indelicately and shrugged.

 

Caroline was almost done eating her turkey wrap when she saw Damon heading down the sidewalk towards her. An ice-cold sense of dread gripped her, threatening to regurgitate the lunch she’d just consumed, and she immediately looked around for allies and exits. _Stay in the crowd_ , she told herself. _Don’t go anywhere with him_. In truth she couldn’t really remember that much about their relationship, except a vague sense of mean words and bruises, saying no and then hearing herself say yes like it was coming from someone else’s mouth, great sex and occasional moments of sweetness. And always, the dread.

She tensed, watching him approach, and then—he walked on by, without even glancing at her. And absurdly, she felt insulted. She sat back in her chair, relaxing but confused—then squealed when she saw him standing right next to her, giving her a curious look from behind dark sunglasses.

“Um… hi,” she told Damon awkwardly. He sniffed the air around her a few times, then leaned over her and sniffed at her hair. Caroline ducked away from him. “What are you _doing_?”

“Hmm,” he said thoughtfully. “Let’s go to the movies.”

“ _Now?_ ” Caroline scoffed. “I have to go back to school. I have algebra at 12:47.”

“Skip,” Damon suggested easily. “That new romantic comedy is playing at 1. Come see it with me.”

Caroline stared at him, her jaw on the table. “You hate romantic comedies,” she reminded him.

“Only the ones you like, because they’re stupid,” Damon replied reasonably. “This one’s supposed to be good. Come on,” he cajoled. “I’ll buy you some popcorn.”

“Is this because Daisy’s out of town?” Caroline asked suspiciously. She was rewarded with a melancholy look that flashed across his face. “Elena said you were all mopey about it.”

“Of course,” he shot back. “Why else would I even be speaking to you?”

But somehow that wasn’t all that much of a deterrent. “Daisy would be mad if you…” Caroline trailed off, not exactly sure how to end her threat. She didn’t want to give him any ideas.

His eyes were unreadable behind the sunglasses. “No, she wouldn’t. She doesn’t care.” Which shouldn’t have encouraged Caroline to go with him—but even though she wasn’t exactly the best judge of character, she knew he was lying.

Damon had always had power over her. But Daisy had power over _him_.

Caroline grinned at this sudden realization. “Well, fine. Let’s go,” she declared, grabbing her purse. He hesitated, seemingly confused by her sudden enthusiasm, and Caroline paused. “Aren’t we going?” A wave of insecurity washed over her—was he just making fun of her, with no intention of following through on his offer?

Damon stood and so did she. “Great. Let’s go.”

Caroline wondered if anyone would see them walking down the street together to the movie theater—and she wasn’t sure whether she wanted them to or not.

 

“Caroline!” Elena called, seeing her friend in the hall after school. The blond gave her a slightly guilty look and quickly turned back to her locker. “Where’ve you been all afternoon?” she asked, catching up with her.

“Oh, well, I just skipped,” Caroline shrugged, as if it were no big deal. For her, it wasn’t, though Elena had to keep her expression from sliding into disapproval. “Just wanted to take a break, you know.”

Elena nodded like she understood. “Where’d you go?”

“I went to the movies,” Caroline answered. Then, because this was Elena and anyway, it would come out sometime, she added reluctantly, “With Damon.”

Elena’s eyes widened. “You went to the movies with _Damon_?” she repeated.

“Look, I know it wasn’t the best idea,” Caroline admitted, starting a little as Stefan suddenly appeared from behind her and walked around to Elena’s side, giving her the same intense gaze. “But it turned out fine, really. We went to see _The Wedding Album_ , he paid for everything, he hardly said a word the whole time…” Elena and Stefan were looking at her with identical expressions of growing concern. “ _What_?” Caroline demanded with some irritation. “It wasn’t like a date or anything. I think he just really misses Daisy.”

“Did he… _do_ anything, or…?” Elena began delicately, her eyes scanning Caroline’s visible skin for any marks.

“No,” Caroline replied, trying to sound sincere and not exasperated. She knew Elena was just worried about her, and that she had reason to be—Damon was a creep. But she couldn’t forget the sad expression she’d seen on his face, the one that assured her she would be fine. “He just sat there and… sniffed me a lot,” she added, rolling her eyes at the eccentricity she put up with.

“He sniffed you?” Elena repeated, finding this sufficiently bizarre.

“Excuse me,” Stefan said politely, stepping closer to Caroline and taking a whiff of her.

“What is _with_ you two?” she said indignantly. Damon’s weirdness was inevitable, but Stefan had always seemed normal.

“You have something scented on,” Stefan observed, moving out of her personal space. “It’s kind of a fruit smell—peaches?”

Caroline seemed slightly taken aback. “It’s just my body wash,” she replied, sniffing her wrist herself. “I didn’t realize it was that strong.”

This didn’t clear things up for either girl, however. “I think it’s the same kind Daisy uses,” Stefan pointed out reluctantly.

“Oh, G-d,” Elena reacted, somewhere in between relief and disgust.

Caroline looked shocked. “Daisy gave it to me,” she informed them, slightly horrified. “She said she really liked it…” Her expression said that bottle was going in the trash the second she got home. “He just took me to the movies because I was some kind of… smell-alike to his girlfriend?” she realized in repugnance. “That is so _sick_!”

Stefan and Elena tried not to look unaccountably uncomfortable—this was not the time to get into the idea of being attracted to someone for their resemblance to someone else. “Well, at least you’re okay,” Elena concluded, with forced cheer. Caroline wasn’t so sure about that—she now felt like Damon had had the upper hand after all, somehow.

“Did he say where he was going when he left?” Stefan questioned the blond closely.

“Well, no,” she admitted. “He said he was going to check in on Daisy. Call her or something, I guess.”

Elena almost said that Damon wasn’t _allowed_ to call Daisy while she was gone, but she held her tongue, instead giving Stefan a worried look. Although maybe if Damon broke one of Daisy’s dictums—intended to keep him from monopolizing her time over the phone or even showing up, inexplicably, in Savannah—he would relieve some of the moodiness that had settled on him.

“There is something _seriously_ wrong with your brother,” put in a new voice as Bonnie joined the group. “Beyond all the obvious psychological defects and personality flaws, that is.” Since she sounded like she was just complaining and not warning them about a rampage in the parking lot, Stefan and Elena’s concern only increased a _little_ bit.

Caroline didn’t want to discuss him anymore. The more she thought about it, the more humiliated she felt. “I have to go now,” she declared, trying and failing to sound breezy.

Elena whipped back around to face her, having been absorbed in Bonnie’s arrival. “Have a good night, Caroline,” she called after her departing friend, unlikely as that seemed now.

“When did you see him?” Stefan asked Bonnie, using all his supernatural abilities to remain calm on the surface.

“A few minutes ago, out back by the picnic tables,” she reported, and Stefan vanished down the empty hallway to look.

“You’re okay, aren’t you?” Elena checked. She felt like she’d spent a lot of time asking that lately—and it was usually related to Damon.

“Yes,” Bonnie assured her. “But he is in some kind of funk and it is creepy as h—l.”

“No kidding,” Elena agreed, thinking of their breakfast conversation.

Stefan zipped back, shaking his head. “He’s gone. What did he say to you?”

“He handed me one of Daisy’s bracelets and wanted me to find her,” she told them. A simple but powerful witch ability. “I said, why don’t you just text her or something, and he got all p---y.”

Elena nodded sympathetically while Stefan asked, “ _Did_ you find her?”

Bonnie rolled her eyes. “Well, since he asked so nicely… Yeah, she was right there in Savannah with her mom and grandma, touring some old house.” She paused with a frown. “Then it was kind of weird, it was like Daisy _knew_ I was checking on her, and she looked _right_ at me. Then the picture vanished.”

Stefan and Elena had bigger concerns at the moment. “How did he react?” Stefan questioned.

Here Bonnie frowned even more deeply. “He put his head down on the table like he was exhausted,” she explained. “Or depressed. He was really pale, too. I don’t usually notice that.” She rolled her eyes again. “Then he took the bracelet back and left. Not that I _expected_ him to say thanks or anything…”

“I think I should look for him,” Stefan told Elena reluctantly. “I don’t think he’s been eating… There might be trouble.” He didn’t want to worry her further—but Damon was unpredictable even when he was happy and well-fed.

She nodded, biting her lip. “Okay. Be careful.” He gave her a significant look and left.

Bonnie watched him go, then turned back to her friend. “Is this seriously all because he’s missing Daisy?” she asked with some disbelief.

“They _do_ spend a lot of time together,” Elena pointed out as the two girls headed for the parking lot. “He’s pretty attached to her.” And Damon was not one to do anything in moderation, including miss someone.

“Do you ever get—a weird vibe from Daisy?” Bonnie asked carefully.

“Well, she’s voluntarily dating Damon, so _yeah_ ,” Elena replied, trying to lighten the mood. It didn’t seem to work. “You’re really the ‘weird vibes’ person.”

“Yeah,” Bonnie nodded slowly. “Sometimes when I touch her there’s this—I don’t know what it is,” she admitted. “It’s not like touching you or Caroline. It’s like—hitting a wall. I can’t see past it, but it makes you wonder—“

“Why is there a wall there,” Elena agreed.

“Yeah.”

 

Really, he should have thought of checking the Grill earlier, Stefan realized, when his sensitive hearing picked up his brother’s voice emanating from the building. His only excuse was that it was almost _too_ obvious. The look of relief on Bill the bartender’s face as he threaded his way through the rising dinner crowd only confirmed his suspicions.

“—and she can fly, did I mention that, well it’s really more like hovering, like a hummingbird, she’s like my little hummingbird—“

Stefan’s eyes widened as he listened to Damon’s drunken ramble—and saw him toss back four shots in the time it took Stefan to reach the bar. “Hi,” he said with forced casualness, patting Damon’s back. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“That’s my little brother,” Damon informed Bill, as though Stefan couldn’t hear him. “I used to have to get up in the middle of the night and take him to the outhouse, because he was too scared to go by himself,” he went on blithely. “We coulda had a slave do it, but that was more trouble, and if you didn’t get him out fast enough he’d wet the bed—“

“He’s _really_ drunk,” Stefan interrupted quickly, not so much embarrassed as… _terrified_ of what Damon would say next.

Bill nodded sagely. “Yeah, got that. He’s been saying crazy s—t since he staggered in.”

Damon was looking around the bar for something with the exaggerated care of the very inebriated. “I can’t find my drink,” he complained, patting himself down.

“Bar’s closed for you, Damon,” Bill informed him. “I was about to call you,” he added to Stefan, and the other man cringed inside to realize how well-known they were at the bar. He supposed that wasn’t really something that should bother him, given all the other options, but formative values were hard to shake. “Hope Daisy gets back soon.”

“Yeah, he’s kinda been on a bender,” Stefan admitted.

“Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true—“ Damon began singing, loudly, and Stefan quickly shook him.

“Hey! What’d I tell you about the singing?” Bill snapped.

“I don’t remember,” Damon claimed. “That was a long time ago. Like, a hundred years ago. When women wore corsets and those high-heeled boots and _bustles_. There’s something really sexy about a bustle—“

“He’s very imaginative,” Stefan assured the bartender. “He reads a lot.”

Bill, fortunately, was not too interested in that. “I’d like to get him out of here before the dinner rush,” he told Stefan baldly. “You know, we get families in here and—“

“No, of course,” Stefan agreed immediately. He tugged lightly on his brother’s arm. “Come on, Damon. Time to go home.”

“No, I don’t wanna go home,” Damon mumbled, and Stefan tugged harder, hoping he wouldn’t be _difficult_. “Father’s gonna cane me if I come home drunk again.”

“He’s—he’s not—“ Stefan sputtered, unprepared for the rush of memories of their human lives the comment provoked. He looked quickly at Bill, who merely raised an eyebrow. “We’ll sneak in through the kitchen,” he finally said, playing along. “He won’t catch us. If you’re _quiet_.”

“You’re such a _good_ little brother,” Damon declared, reaching out to pat Stefan’s shoulder and missing completely. “I’m sorry I beat you up all the time.”

“No, you’re not,” Stefan countered dryly. “Come on.”

“You’re right, I’m not,” Damon grinned, moving off the barstool. As soon as he’d lost its support, however, he dropped like a rock before his brother could catch him.

“Oh, G-d,” Stefan sighed.

“Need any help?” Bill offered.

“Hey! There’s a floor down here!” Damon called up to them. “Did anybody notice?”

“I got it,” Stefan assured the bartender, reaching down to yank Damon up with a shoulder under his arm. “I’ll take him out the back.”

“Thanks, Stefan,” Bill said. “Have a nice evening.”

“Thanks, you too,” Stefan replied politely, which was somewhat incongruous with lugging his drunken brother out the back door of the restaurant.

“S—t,” Damon said suddenly as Stefan maneuvered him down the alley towards his truck.

“What’s wrong?” his brother asked tolerantly.

“I can’t let Father find out about me and Daisy,” Damon worried in a slurred tone.

“He’s not gonna find out,” Stefan assured him. “Father’s dead, Damon.”

This news was not very distressing to the other man. “Oh. Did I kill him? I can’t remember…”

“No,” Stefan answered shortly, sitting him in the passenger side of the truck.

When he came around to the driver’s side Damon was still talking. “…what he did to Chicken Sally after he caught us…”

“I remember,” Stefan replied grimly, starting the engine. He really wished his brother would find something else to talk about.

“Said no one would ever find her pretty again,” Damon went on, slumped in the seat. He was mumbling more at the door his face was pressed against than Stefan. “She was so pretty… Daisy’s beautiful.”

“I know,” Stefan agreed, prepared to encourage this topic now that he’d seen the alternative. “How are you gonna celebrate when she gets home?”

“I’m gonna buy her a really, really, really big bottle of moisturizer,” Damon declared, and that was a hard word to say when drunk. “Because moisturizers are a girl’s best friend.”

Stefan had to smile at the absurdity of that statement. “Okay. I don’t suppose you’ve eaten anything today?”

“Not hungry,” Damon muttered, curling up more in the seat.

“Come on, you have to eat,” Stefan chided. “This whole hunger strike thing is a _little_ pathetic, buddy.”

“I wanna eat Daisy,” Damon whined. “Daisy tastes _so_ good. She’s all sparkly. Not like _Twilight_ sparkly but sparkly _inside_ …”

Stefan sighed and wondered if it would be inappropriate for _him_ to call Daisy. But what good would that do? She was on a trip with her mom and grandmother—she couldn’t cut it short and rush back just because her boyfriend had turned out to be even _more_ obsessive and needy than predicted. Or at least, she _shouldn’t_. And then she would just feel bad for the rest of the trip.

He realized suddenly that his brother had been quiet for too long. “Damon?” He reached over and poked his arm. “Damon?”

“I don’t feel good,” Damon replied distinctly, and Stefan’s eyes widened.

“Hold on, we’re almost home,” he promised, stepping on the gas a little more.

“’Member what a good cook Chicken Daisy was?” Damon mumbled, mixing up the two names. “I love women who cook.”

Stefan didn’t have time to appreciate that irony as he stopped abruptly in their driveway and hurried around to open the passenger door, catching Damon as he tumbled out. He heard the front door of the house open and close as he dragged his brother away from the truck and tried to keep him upright.

“Oh my G-d, what happened?” Elena asked. “Is he okay?”

“He’s really drunk,” Stefan explained quickly. “He’s going to—“

“You don’t want to stand right there,” Damon warned Elena and she quickly stepped aside, right before he vomited up a large amount of liquid onto the lawn.

Stefan set him down on the edge of the driveway carefully as Elena tried to suppress her own gag reflex. “Oh my G-d, my nose!” Damon moaned, covering his face with his hands as he slumped on the ground. “Oh my G-d, my face is on fire!”

Elena was staring at him in horror and alarm. “Don’t worry,” Stefan told her inadequately. “He’s just throwing up the alcohol that his body can’t process. It stings a little, coming back up.”

“Is he gonna be okay?” she asked, distrustful of any answer that started with ‘yes.’ Where did you take a sick vampire for help?

“It’s possible he’s also having a nervous breakdown,” Stefan commented, but his tone was dry, not worried, as he sat down on the driveway next to his brother and leaned against the truck. “Feel better now?”

Damon was wiping a variety of excess fluids from his nose, mouth, and eyes, which Elena tried not to think too much about as she sat down on Stefan’s other side. “F—k you,” Damon replied unpleasantly, but he didn’t sound nearly as drunk.

“Thank you for not throwing up in the truck,” Stefan told him, rubbing his back.

“I hate you _and_ your f-----g truck,” Damon muttered in reply. He flopped to the ground, his head coincidentally landing on Stefan’s legs. “I don’t know why Daisy wouldn’t just let me come to Savannah with her,” he complained, perfectly serious.

“Yeah, you’re such a low-maintenance kinda guy,” Stefan deadpanned.

“Why did you take Caroline to the movies today?” Elena risked asking, more curious than upset by now.

“She smelled kind of like Daisy,” Damon replied, staring up at the starry sky above them. “And she’s kind of bossy, too, like Daisy.”

“I didn’t realize you liked bossy women,” Elena said lightly. Instead of answering Damon rolled onto his side, effectively putting his back to her and Stefan, and she worried that she’d said something wrong.

“Come on, let’s get you inside,” Stefan suggested, rubbing his brother’s shoulder.

“Can I put my head in Elena’s lap?” Damon responded innocently.

“No,” the other two replied immediately.

Stefan hauled him back up. “You should lie down for a while,” he suggested. For once Damon didn’t argue.

 

_Saturday_

Bill the bartender raised an eyebrow when he saw who sat down on a stool in front of him the next morning. “This is getting to be a habit,” he observed.

“I just came in to pay my tab,” Damon assured him, pulling out his wallet. “But a scotch appearing before me on the bar wouldn’t hurt.”

“It’s ten AM,” Bill pointed out, and Damon gave him a nasty look from behind his sunglasses.

“You’re a _bartender_ ,” he sneered. “Tend something.”

Bill shrugged and poured the scotch. “Guess you boys got home alright last night.”

Damon threw a pile of bills on the bar. “Yeah. I booted all over the lawn.” He sipped the scotch. “Tastes a lot better going down than coming back up.” Bill smirked and collected the cash. “Hey, I don’t really remember much from last night,” Damon claimed, which Bill found understandable. “Was I feeling chatty?”

“Yup,” Bill answered succinctly.

“Well what was I _talking_ about?” Damon pressed impatiently.

“Mostly about Daisy and her magical powers,” Bill reported dryly. “Also sounded like you watched _Gone with the Wind_ too many times.”

“Sentimental favorite,” Damon quipped. He leaned forward on the bar and lowered his sunglasses enough to stare directly at Bill. “Did you tell anyone what I said last night?” he asked carefully.

“No. Typical drunk talk,” the man replied, standing transfixed.

“Good. Then forget all the details of it,” Damon commanded.

“Okay.”

Damon broke the connection and raised his dark lenses back up over his bloodshot eyes. “One more for the road,” he ordered, indicating his empty glass.

Bill shook his head, however. “You need to dry out for a few days,” he said.

“Uh, _what_?” Damon responded in surprise.

“I’m not serving you again until next week,” Bill told him firmly, and Damon’s jaw dropped. “Daisy’s a nice girl. She’s got a drunk for a mom already, used to come in here to fetch her until Karen started drinking down at the Station. She doesn’t need a drunk for a boyfriend, too.”

It was a rare event, but Damon found himself speechless. “Wha—um—huh,” he finally decided, and he got up and left.

Downtown was sunny and loud and dull, dull, dull as Damon stomped around, trying to think of something to do that wouldn’t get him staked by Stefan when he came home from school. And then of course he was spotted by one of the many people he’d hoped to avoid.

“Damon,” Sheriff Forbes greeted, serious as usual.

“Liz,” he replied, forcing a smile. _Respectable member of society_ , he reminded himself.

“How are you doing today?”

_Respectable member of_ —“My life s—ks,” Damon blurted unexpectedly. “Daisy’s out of town, I’ve got a b---h of a hangover, and I just got lectured to by a bartender.”

The Sheriff raised an eyebrow. “Have you been drinking this morning?”

Damon waved that off. “Only one.” She gave him a steely look and he decided to change the subject. “How are _you_ doing? Any—“ He lowered his voice. “—suspicious activity?” She knew he meant, vampire-related.

To his relief she shook her head. “No. No more attacks in the area,” she assured him, warily optimistic. “A few missing persons, but they’re all from the homeless shelters. Those populations tend to be pretty transient.” Damon nodded as though he cared. Sticking with the people no one counted and no one missed was a good plan so far, though rather boring. “There’ve been some mysterious attacks in Charlestown and Neoga, though,” she added thoughtfully and Damon froze.

“Don’t they always have more crime there?” he hinted. “In the cities?” Neoga was _not_ a city. But it was five times the size of Mystic Falls, and to some people that was enough to make it a den of evil.

The Sheriff shrugged. “They fit the pattern. Might be nothing. Or the creature might be branching out. I’m gonna bring it up at the next Council meeting.”

“I look forward to hearing about it,” Damon claimed.

 

On the one hand, things were looking up. Stefan had persuaded Damon to come out to dinner with him and Elena, and he counted that as a small victory in preventing his brother from sinking completely into social isolation.

On the other hand, Damon was perfectly capable of being socially isolated even in a crowded restaurant, for example by sitting silently across the table half-sprawled over an empty chair, sending out negative energy to the world at large. Stefan was surprised Elena’s milkshake hadn’t curdled.

“So…” Stefan said into the latest awkward pause. “Are you going to come over tomorrow night and do homework?” This was addressed to Elena, of course.

“I thought I would, if that’s okay,” she responded, trying to sound as normal as possible. “I have to work on my physics report.”

“Oh, what’s that about?” he questioned.

“Electro—“ Damon made a noise on the other side of the table, not a mocking noise, just a ‘the world s—ks and I hate you all’ sort of noise that made it difficult to carry on a conversation. “—magnetism,” she finished lamely. She stared down at her salad, picking at it, while Stefan sighed and swirled his coffee.

It was like trying to ignore the dead body in the room.

The dead, non-reanimated body, that is.

“Wow, you guys are cheerful,” Bonnie observed breezily, sweeping up to the table.

“Bonnie! Join us,” Elena insisted, a bit desperately. “Please?”

“Okay.” The only open chair was the one Damon had his arm draped around. “Can I use this or are you gonna take it home?” she asked him dryly.

“That’s Daisy’s chair,” he snapped unexpectedly and the others froze.

“Well Daisy’s not here,” Bonnie reminded him dangerously. Damon’s eyes narrowed as he glared up at her and he started to growl low in the back of his throat. Bonnie drew back for a moment, but her expression said she was prepared to fight back with her own powers.

“Let me get you a chair,” Stefan offered immediately, pulling over one from a nearby empty table. He set it next to himself, on the other side of the table from Damon, hoping to avoid some kind of firefight inside the restaurant.

“What do you want to eat, Bonnie?” Elena encouraged, and her friend finally sat down, not taking her eyes off Damon. For his part he ignored her once she gave up her designs on the chair.

“I feel like something _blackened_ tonight,” Bonnie muttered under her breath.

“Um, so… are you done with your physics report?” Elena asked her, forcing interest into her voice. “I’m gonna finish mine up at Stefan’s tomorrow night.”

“You’re welcome to join us,” Stefan added graciously. He reached across the table and took away the dinner knife his brother was idly scraping the wood with.

“I don’t know. Might be too crowded in the house,” Bonnie remarked pointedly. “You, me, Stefan, Damon, Damon’s imaginary girlfriend.”

Both Elena and Stefan winced at this jibe. Damon didn’t react for a moment—then suddenly he pushed away from the table and walked out of the restaurant without looking back. Stefan waited a moment longer to see if anything horrible happened within his hearing, then he finally relaxed. Somewhat.

“Bonnie!” Elena chided. “Damon’s really upset about Daisy being gone.”

“Oh please,” Bonnie scoffed. “She’s been on vacation for a _week_ , that’s all. And Damon is _always_ ‘really something.’ He’s such a drama queen.”

Elena opened her mouth to protest, but then she couldn’t think of a decent counter argument. Besides which, Stefan was nodding with resignation. “Yeah,” she finally sighed.

 

She was warm and pliant and just a little bit drunk—no need for compulsion, which was good because he didn’t have the energy for it. Her boobs were fake, but so was his affection for her, so they were even. And in the alley behind the bar—not the Grill, because he had been _banned from that bar_ for the time being—he was going to have sex with her, or at least engage in activities that might be considered sexual depending on who was President. And then he was going to bite her. He intended just a snack that he would make her forget, but he was pretty hungry and there was a chance he would drink her dry. He’d deal with that later if he had to.

She giggled drunkenly as he ran his hands over her curves, ignoring whatever little protests about the setting or the speed she was making—her hands were definitely saying _yes_ the way they pawed at him. _Daisy won’t mind_ , he thought as he nuzzled the woman’s neck, smelling the flowing blood through her skin. Daisy wasn’t _here_. And when he told her about it—because of course he would tell her—she would be glad he had eaten something at all.

Without thinking he kissed the nameless woman—and he quickly remembered why kissing humans was sometimes a bad idea. She tasted nasty, like lipstick and cigarettes, stale beer and cheese fries, and he shoved her back.

“What’s wrong?” she asked with a slurred laugh.

The sight of her suddenly disgusted him, turned his stomach—fake boobs, fake hair, fake nails, toppling out of a dress she’d bought too small on purpose, too much make-up, not enough sense. He wanted no part of her, not even her blood.

“You’re pathetic,” he told her meanly, watching her face fall with dark satisfaction. He tried to scrub her taste off his lips. “Have some self-respect. And don’t drink so much.” The impromptu speech was not going to win any awards for its motivational power. He turned the compulsion on despite the drain on his resources. “Forget you ever saw me.” Then he turned and walked away.

 

_Sunday_

The house was quiet when Stefan came home— _too_ quiet. “I’d better see if Damon’s home,” he told Elena and Bonnie, who were headed into the living room with their textbooks.

“What time did he get in last night?” Elena asked in concern.

“Pretty late,” Stefan replied. “He was asleep in bed when I checked on him this morning, though.”

“I will never understand why Daisy puts up with him,” Bonnie remarked, unable to summon up much compassion.

No one could really answer that, so the girls started their homework and Stefan went upstairs. Knowing his concern would be scorned he looked for his brother anyway, hoping he’d at least gotten out and eaten something. The whole ‘wasting away for love’ thing was _not_ as romantic as Damon seemed to find it.

Not seeing any evidence of him elsewhere Stefan quietly opened the door to Damon’s room and saw him lying in bed, sprawled out under the sheet in a position very similar to the one he’d been in that morning. Frowning, Stefan walked over and shook his arm.

“Damon. Damon, wake up.”

Damon whined sleepily. “Make Stefan do it,” he mumbled, scooting away.

Stefan rolled his eyes and climbed onto the bed so he could reach his brother. “Damon, wake up,” he repeated, pushing on his shoulder. “You’ve been—“ Damon moved away from the poking again, only there was no more mattress left and he dropped right off the edge. Overbalanced, Stefan tumbled after him and the pair landed in a tangled heap.

Damon finally opened his eyes, taking in his company and surroundings with a noticeable lack of comprehension. “Is there a girl around here,” he asked blearily, “or have we reached a new level of weirdness?” The fact that he didn’t sound too disturbed by this possibility worried Stefan all the more.

Stefan fought his way free of sheet and body. “You’ve been asleep all day,” he pointed out.

“I’m a vampire,” Damon responded, curling up on the floor with part of the sheet and Stefan wedged under his head for a pillow.

“This isn’t healthy,” his brother insisted, then asked suddenly, “Why are you naked?”

Damon shrugged as if it were of little consequence. “I dunno. Why not? Oh, I think I took a shower,” he remembered fuzzily. “Daisy’s coming home today.”

“When?”

“Um… seven.”

Stefan looked at his watch. “It’s five now,” he warned.

Damon punched his leg to move it to a position _he_ found more comfortable. “Well _shut up_ and wake me in twelve hours,” he ordered.

“It’s five _PM_ ,” Stefan clarified, innate decency preventing him from adding ‘moron’ to the end.

Damon’s eyes flew open. “S—t!” Stefan was knocked backwards as his brother leaped up and raced towards the door, going from zero to vampire speed in milliseconds.

“Don’t you think you should—“ Stefan began, but Damon had long vanished.

Shrill screams echoed from downstairs and Damon whooshed back into the room, slamming the door behind him and leaning heavily against it. “I should get dressed first,” he decided, and Stefan nodded with a bland expression, wondering how traumatized the girls downstairs had been.

Damon was already whirling around the room, swearing and apparently dressing, though he was ignoring things Stefan considered essential, like underwear. Stefan tried to sneak away but found himself grabbed. “What kind of flowers would Daisy like?” Damon demanded of him, a wild look in his eyes.

“Um… daisies?” Stefan tried lamely.

Damon blinked at him. “Good suggestion,” he decided, seemingly sincere. Then he disappeared out the door.

 

Damon was sitting on the front steps of Daisy’s house when her mom’s car pulled into the driveway, sighing to a stop like it was relieved to be home. He forced himself to do nothing more than wave until they got out, then he hurried to the trunk and started lifting suitcases out for them. Karen began complaining about the trip immediately, in the guise of ‘telling him about it,’ while Grandma Rose merely uttered a few sin-related fortune-cookie sayings and hit him with her cane, even when he gave her the bouquet of flowers he carried. He deliberately avoided even looking at Daisy.

“Here, let me help,” she said, grabbing the same suitcase from the trunk. She pulled on his collar with her other hand, trying to draw his lips down to hers while the lid of the trunk shielded them from view.

He stopped her with a hand on her wrist and she gave him a questioning look. “You kiss me, I swear to G-d I will throw you into this trunk and f—k you right here,” he promised in a low voice.

Daisy smiled at him and he almost followed through just based on that. “Well, that sounds… uncomfortable,” she agreed. “I’ll see you later, won’t I?” His look said trying to stop him would be futile.

As soon as Daisy said an early goodnight and went up to her room he was there, too, lying on his side on the bed, looking up at her balefully. She climbed onto the mattress to join him. “I don’t mean to complain, baby,” she began, “but usually people are _happy_ when their girlfriends come home from a trip.”

“I missed you,” he admitted, playing with their intertwined fingers.

“Is that so bad?” she asked, and his eyes snapped up, raw and ragged, as if to say, _Yes, it is_. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down to rest his head on her chest, running her fingers through his hair. “I missed you, too,” she told him. “Whenever I got bored I just thought about what _you_ would say right then and it made me smile.” He groaned against her as though he found this comment physically painful. “You know, you don’t look so good, baby,” she observed. “When’s the last time you ate?”

“Everyone is so concerned with my eating habits,” he muttered, settling in more comfortably and closing his eyes. “You’re going to give me a disorder.”

“Are you an anorexic vampire now?” Daisy teased him.

“Well, I did throw up the other day,” he admitted, “so maybe I’m bulimic.”

“Go get something to eat,” Daisy encouraged. “I’ll be right here.” He shook his head against her chest. “Go on. You can even bring it back here if it isn’t too messy.”

“Not hungry,” he sighed.

“Well, tell me what you’ve been up to while I was gone,” she suggested, but he shook his head again.

“Later. Tired.”

“Baby, you’re a vampire,” Daisy pointed out, a little more firmly. “Lifting a few suitcases shouldn’t make you tired.” She stroked her fingers along his cheek, feeling the unaccustomed coldness and roughness of it, and ended with one finger pressed against his lips. “Have just a little bit. Then you’ll feel more like going out.”

He made a whining noise but once her finger was so close he couldn’t resist a taste. She yanked it away a moment later and he rolled on top of her, looking down on her with shining blue eyes. “Yum,” he purred, making the single syllable slightly obscene. Then he leaned down and kissed her, moaning as her tongue snaked over the still-receding points of his canines. He pulled back unwillingly. “I am really…”

“Hungry?” Daisy guessed with some amusement. “And not metaphorically?”

He looked slightly sheepish. “I haven’t had much appetite lately.”

“You old-fashioned boys take your pining very seriously,” she observed, and not for the first time.

“It used to be considered romantic,” he pointed out, “and not a sign of mental instability.”

“Times change,” she shrugged. She gave him a little push. “Go eat. I’ll be here.” He kissed her again, then just once more, then left via the window.

Daisy woke up sometime later to see a familiar silhouette in the bathroom doorway. “It’s really _wet_ out,” Damon complained, drying his hair with a towel. He’d already discarded his shoes, socks, and shirt, and as Daisy watched he peeled off his jeans and crawled into bed with her, damp and slightly cool from the rain.

He kissed her until she had to slow him down, with great reluctance. “Damon—“

“We’ll be quiet,” he promised rashly, nuzzling her neck.

“I don’t wanna be quiet,” she countered breathlessly.

He groaned against her throat. “I don’t wanna be quiet, either.”

“Shhh!” she muffled him, while doing things that made him groan louder.

He broke off, panting even though he didn’t need to breathe. “Skip school tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow night, six-thirty,” she countered, unable to keep her hands off him. “Let’s go to your apartment for the night.”

“Good plan,” he decided. “I like mine better, though.”

“I missed a whole week of school,” Daisy reminded him, stroking his face in an effort to keep touching him without escalating the situation. “I have to get caught up.”

“So do I,” he replied, diving for her lips again. A creak on the floor below froze them. “Your mom doesn’t care that I’m here,” he protested. “And if she _did_ care I could make her _not_ care.”

“Tomorrow night,” Daisy promised, and he sighed and settled down against her. “Tell me what you did while I was gone,” she repeated, wrapping her arms around him again.

“Wild orgies to celebrate my freedom from you,” he claimed.

“Ooh, I hope you taped it,” Daisy shot back.

“Don’t tease me like that if you expect me to wait until tomorrow night,” he warned.

“Sorry.” He was quiet for a long moment. “You’re not still tired, are you?” she checked. “You ate something substantial?”

“You know that no-kill animal shelter? Well, I just saved them some money,” Damon responded cheekily. Daisy smiled a little and shook her head. “I’ll hit the no-kill people shelter tomorrow,” he decided. “Power up for our big night.”

“Well, talk to me a little then,” Daisy requested. “I miss the sound of your voice.”

“You wanna hear a story that’s a real downer?” he offered thoughtfully. Daisy indicated yes. “It’s about this girl I used to know, whose name was Chicken Sally…”

 

_Monday_

The next day Elena practically pounced on Daisy at her locker. “Oh my G-d, Daisy! You’re back! Has Damon seen you?”

“Yes,” Daisy assured her with an amused smirk.

“Was he with you last night?” Stefan asked. “Sorry,” he added, feeling as though he might have been too forward, “but he didn’t come home last night, and I was worried.”

“Yes, he was with me.”

“Did he eat anything?” Stefan queried. Elena seemed equally interested in the answer.

Daisy raised an eyebrow as she looked between the two of them. “I’m starting to get the impression he was a little bit of a handful while I was gone.”

“Oh, well…” Elena hedged. “He just missed you.”

“Pain in the a-s,” Stefan confirmed bluntly.

“Yeah, he was,” Elena agreed.

“Daisy!” Caroline exclaimed, coming up behind her. She looked like she wasn’t quite sure what else to say. “Um, you’re back! Um, have you talked to Damon?” Caroline looked more than a little guilty.

“Yes,” Daisy said once more.

Caroline read into the syllable what she wanted. “It wasn’t a date!” she blurted suddenly. “He just took me to a movie!” Daisy’s eyebrows were getting quite a workout this morning. “And he sniffed me a lot because I smelled like you!”

Daisy took pity on her. “I’m sure it’s fine, Caroline,” she told the other girl warmly. “I’m sure you made him feel better, and I appreciate that. It was very kind of you, especially considering how he’s acted in the past.”

Caroline straightened up a little, feeling much better about the incident now that it had been presented in a new light. “I _was_ kind to go with him, wasn’t I?” she agreed. “Still, I’m glad you’re back. I can’t skip school every day.” With that she turned and left.

Daisy faced Elena and Stefan again. “Is there anyone else I ought to speak to?” she asked cautiously.

“Well, Bill the bartender at the Grill will be happy to see you again,” Stefan deadpanned. “I think Damon’s given you several superpowers.”

Daisy’s eyes widened. “Well I’ll definitely have to talk to him about that,” she replied dryly. “He’s supposed to keep my superpowers a secret.”

 

A few days later Stefan came home to find Damon and Daisy sitting on the couch in the living room, as closely entwined as possible while still fully clothed. Fortunately they were just watching TV.

“Who’s your favorite Golden Girl?” Damon pestered her.

“I don’t really like watching TV,” Daisy reminded him, trying to work on her knitting. Stefan had heard her say this himself at least eleven times, but Damon _loved_ watching TV, so watch it they did. “I wish they had a _Golden Girls_ stage show,” she added thoughtfully.

“So do I!” Damon agreed enthusiastically. “That would be fantastic. Maybe at a dinner theatre in Florida or something. I would go every night. We could hang out with the cast, get them tipsy on mimosas…” Sometimes Damon’s imagination was disturbing in an inexplicable way.

“If you want to replace Angelina Jolie with the woman who plays Sophia in a dinner theatre version of _Golden Girls_ as your celebrity shag, I would understand,” Daisy allowed.

“I’ll think about it,” Damon decided, and Stefan knew he really would. Shaking his head, Stefan headed up to his room, glad things were back to normal. Strange as ‘normal’ was around here.


End file.
